H 146.05 cm x W 118.11 cm x D 12.7 cm
a - A 3/4 length portrait of Dr. James Sampson. Sampson is seated in a red-upholstered wooden armchair with carved arms. The chair is turned to the right, with the figure's knees in the lower right corner of the composition, and his face turned slightly towards the viewer. The figure has long grey hair, dark eyebrows, grey eyes, and a grey half-beard with full mutton-chop sideburns. He gazes out past the viewer's right shoulder. The subject is wearing dark grey trousers, a black overcoat, a dark waistcoat, a white shirt, and a black bowtie. His right elbow rests on the arm of the chair while he grasps the head of a wooden cane with his right hand. His left arm rests on the surface of a red-draped table to his left, and his left hand hangs over the edge of the table, loosely grasping a leather glove. There are several books on the table behind the figure. The remainder of the background is a plain grey-brown. The painting is signed "W. Sawyer: / 1860" in dark paint in the lower right corner.
b - The rectangular shaped nameplate for the portrait.
The painting is housed in a mid-19th century gilt wood and plaster frame. Plain back edge, vine and stick outer edges to plain deep scotia; escalloped cartouche corners and centres with scrolls and foliate extensions on plain swept rail Grecian ogee top edge; struck moulding, acanthus and shield bead, beveled sight edge, with foliate spandrels at top corners.
Born in Ireland and educated in medicine at Trinity College Dublin, Sampson was a surgeon and educator dedicated to public welfare in Kingston. He was a founder and the first dean of Queen’s medical faculty, as well as instrumental in seeing Kingston General Hospital built and Chair of the KGH Board. James Sampson’s mayoral terms coincided with both the establishment and dissolution of Kingston as the provincial legislative capital.
